Gift
by AriMarvelUniverse
Summary: Set after Leo left to train in 2007...kinda angsty fic about Christmas presents and broken promises. In my OCs POV. Drug reference and a little something more than a kiss...heheheee...


The necklace was still as beautiful as the day Leonardo gave it to her.  
Alone, in a random tunnel, Kiyono stood with her back against the grimy wall with her head tipped downwards and her palm out, glowing alabaster white in the dim light leaking through the bars of the manhole overhead. Her face was shadowed and and tight with pain, and moisture glimmered in the corners of her obsidian eyes, turning them glassy and blank.  
The tiny charm that lay in her hand was no bigger than a medium sized snowflake, and yet it seemed to weigh a thousand tons and beat like a miniature heart. She was used to it being warm, but now it was ice cold. She'd thought that taking it off would reduce the heavy burden on her chest, and it hadn't. It only made it worse.  
The size hadn't made any difference to her. When she'd first seen it, she'd thought it was the most exquisite thing in the world. A small flower with six petals and a teardrop diamond in the center, strung on on a delicate silver chain. The petals were cobalt blue-the exact same shade as Leo's mask.

That Christmas had been the best day of her life...Her first one. The first she'd ever celebrated. Leo had helped her find gifts for the rest of the Hamatos, even though he wasn't supposed to. He'd wanted until everyone else had opened their presents before suddenly getting up and heading towards his room. She'd blinked at him, confused-wrapping paper covered the floor, and every box had been ripped open.

"'Leo? What's wrong?"'  
"'Nothing, Sakura. Just wait here."'  
Donnie had smiled and shook his head, and Raph had rolled his amber eyes. Mikey'd giggled and made a strange face at Leo's back. She'd told him specifically NOT to get her anything, because she knew that anything she got him in return would be awful by comparison. Instead of excitement, she'd felt a sense of dread. Although not as openly obstinate as his red masked brother, Leo could be as stubborn as a mule. Sometimes it irritated the living hell out of her. When he came back, she'd barely kept herself from glaring at him. The box had been non descript, just a simple black square that to her could've held anything. When he opened it...it took her a while to register that this wonderful, gorgeous thing was really hers. She'd sat there and stared at it, fingers hovering an inch from the box, eyes wide and mouth forming a tiny O shape. She'd sat there without speaking for so long, a brownish flush began to form on Leo's face.  
"'I didn't know if-MPHH!"' They never got to find out what he didn't know, because she didn't give him the chance to finish. She'd lunged at him with inhuman speed, tears streaming down her cheeks as she buried her face in his neck, shaking and stunned. It hadn't bothered her that Donnie cleared his throat twice, or that Raph mumbled some crude remark, something about what Leo's present might be be afterwards, or that Mikey started gagging and choking after he said it. It was like he'd given her himself in a box. The leader had waved away her stammered thank you-s and questions as to how he got the necklace, and flipped her braid off her shoulder so he could clasp the chain around her neck. When she'd felt it settle in the base of her collarbone, she'd been the happiest girl alive.

Now, staring at it as it sat silent in her hand, she wanted to crush it and bury it under the rushing waves of sewer water at her feet. Before, when she'd held it up to the light, it had almost seemed to sing as it sparkled. But now, it was cruelly quiet...like his shell cell, and the Skype app on the computer, and the empty P.O box.  
She'd never taken out off before now...not even the night before he left. She'd watched it swing and sway with their movements, catching the dull red light from his clock as time ticked away and she gave him everything she had, hoping he'd take it with him and not forget her. He'd held the charm in his hand as he nuzzled her sweaty skin with his beak, waiting for her to catch her breath. He'd kissed it and her on his way out the door, promising a swift return with his steady brown eyes.

Kiyono glared at the clasp, which had broken when she'd snatched it from around her neck less than ten minutes ago. Broken like his promise. She held it higher, and the streetlights caught the perfectly round, puckered scars on her arms and swollen veins, left there by the needles that delivered her only sense of control these days. The drugs burned on their way in, but she'd learned to accept and even anticipate it. It was the only thing keeping Leonardo's brothers alive, the only thing keeping her from slipping and drowning now that her rock, her tether, was gone. The scars blended in with her marks, and the prickling rash on her neck was covered by her thick, long hair, so no one knew about her addiction but her and the poisonous voices in her head- and maybe the Bo-wielder. Donatello wasn't stupid-sometimes she'd catch him staring at her strangely, pinning her with his erudite hazel gaze, seeing straight through her plastic smiles and bubbling laughs. He probably did know, but just didn't know how to approach her about it. Either that, or he had to much on his own plate to deal with and just couldn't be bothered.

"'I won't be able to control them without you."'  
"'Yes you will. You're stronger now than before. I'll be back before you even have a chance to miss me."'

Right before he'd disappeared off the face of the earth and left her with nothing but a charm necklace and an E-reader. Kiyono slowly curled her fingers around the necklace, feeling the metal bite into her hand. She could feel and see the sticky blackness swimming in her sclera, and the boiling insanity simmering in her brain. Her fist steamed with grey frost as she prepared to destroy the necklace she'd loved more than any other material thing in the world. It was clear by now he wasn't coming back to ever see that it was gone...three years, and she'd caught the hint. She didn't need Raph to scream it at her back anymore as he stormed out of the lair at three am in the morning.

Before the ice could take hold, she stopped and unfurled her hand again, looking at it thoughtfully. It really was pretty...the diamond in the center shone like a tear. Leo would've hated to see anything happen to it...

Kiyono tucked the chain and the charm back into the pocket of her ripped jeans and stared for the far edge of the tunnel, towards the manhole that led up into the streets. She was running low on her supply...She wondered how much more Malik would give her for it. Maybe he would have a nice Christmas this year.


End file.
